When she left the elevator, someone wrapped an arm around her neck from behind. The suspect then dragged her by a towel which Kim had put around her neck and a plastic strip from the seventh floor to the fifth floor.

The victim screamed for help and the suspect grabbed the towel and fled before a security guard and neighbours rushed to the scene after hearing the noise.

Police arrived and found the victim was conscious but with injuries on her neck. She was sent to hospital for medical treatment.

After checking surveillance camera footage, police are hunting for a 160-centimetre-tall woman who wore black clothes, a black hat and a pair of white gloves.

The suspect told media on Wednesday that she is a North Korean defector. She left North Korea and was sent to Shandong, an eastern province of China, before coming to Hong Kong when she was nine years old. She said she had changed her name four times since then, Oriental Daily reported.

The victim claimed that the suspect told her, “Don’t speak anymore” with a Shandong accent.

She also claimed that last year, a woman with a Pyongyang accent attacked her in the same way.

The victim told media that she was seeing a doctor because she suffered from a serious panic disorder.

Her identity had been exposed due to involvement in a criminal case in 2015, HK01.com reported.